Impact with a handlebar in slow speed bicycling crashes has been identified as a mechanism for causing life threatening truncal injuries in children. Severe abdominal injury is seldom immediately evident following bicycle trauma related accidents. A consequential injury that may result from such a handlebar accident is a traumatic abdominal wall hernia (TAWH). A TAWH is produced by a direct blow that is either blunt or may impact the skin with an insufficient force to puncture the skin. A TAWH occurs because the elasticity of the skin is greater than the other layers of the abdominal wall. The skin remains intact despite the fact that there may be significant disruption below the abdominal wall, i.e. muscle and fascia, thus causing a difficulty in detection. In the worst case scenario, bicycle handlebar trauma can cause death. Bicycle handlebar trauma is often hard to detect initially in a clinical atmosphere and may be further complicated by delayed injury.
In recent years, an increasing number of children have suffered severe abdominal trauma while riding their bicycles. Since this mechanism of injury has not been well described and abdominal trauma is difficult to detect without a thorough examination, many children are sent home and forced to return to the hospital when the symptoms become more severe. One particular form of accident is responsible for the majority of these injuries. This involves a rapid shift in momentum caused by the front tire of the bicycle coming into contact with a changing interface such as the transition from sidewalk to grass. This transition stops the bicycle and tends to rotate the front wheel and handlebars. The rider continues to move forward into an end of the handlebar and often hits the ground with the handlebar end still in contact with his/her abdomen. On impact, an additional blow is exerted by the handlebar on the rider, which is translated into the rider's abdominal area.
It would be beneficial to develop a handlebar which absorbs at least some of the energy generated by the impact of the rider with the handlebar, thereby reducing the amount of force transmitted to the rider as a result of the impact.